Sleuths Crack Tracking Code Discovered in Color Printers

[Roadkill101]

While I didn't know about the encoded tags, I can't say I'm all that surprised. Nor am I all that happy about any other "Big Brother" applications the encoding opens up for other than tracking counterfit currency.

While I'm not paranoid about conspiracy theories, I do value my privacy. And partly for this reason I don't register hardware or software with manufacturers, unless it's necessary for the item to operate. Spam is the bigger reason why I don't register anything, and I don't trust the e-mail listing opt-out some registrations provide for.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Yeah, I never register anything either, and I really don't know why anyone would...Oh well, maybe there's some sort of benefit, but I'm with roadkill, I don't trust 'em not to spam me.

 

[Aaron L]

But they only use the information against the BAD GUYS, not people like you and me! (wink wink)

 

[Psionicist]

That's disturbing, but I don't think it's as disturbing as the new copy protection mechanism in the next version of windows.

The PE is built on certified hardware using certified drivers, and can be invalidated by the presence of 'un-trusted' software, drivers or hardware. What constitutes unsafe software will likely be decided by Microsoft and concerned interests like the RIAA and movie industries.

Your printer probably don't allow you to print money. Now the next version of windows will not allow you to run certain programs the record and movie industry don't like. Yay.

http://www.pcstats.com/artvnl.cfm?articleID=1871

 

[wingsandsword]

That's disturbing, but I don't think it's as disturbing as the new copy protection mechanism in the next version of windows.

"Trusted Computing" they call it. It's supposed to mean computing resources with security you can trust. What it really means is: They Don't Trust You.

Honestly, if MS really implements all these Trusted Computing initiatives as mandatory in any future OS, I can see it being a critical blunder. The whole reason Windows (and before that the IBM PC) became so successful was that it was open to third party vendors as well as hobbyists and amateurs; anybody could just whip up a program for it, come out with a PC/Windows version of their software, and pretty soon you could do anything you want with the PC and then Windows, Trusted Computing is a big step backwards.

Some governments like Brasil have already moved away from using MS because they don't like the idea that their computers are running on software they can't see the source code (national security issues to be sure), and making it so that MS can say "your programs don't work" is a very serious security issue. Would you trust your entire country or company to Microsoft granting you permission to run the programs you need to run, even if MS might not like them?

Simply put, do you trust Microsoft implicitly to grant you permission to use your computer? I don't think people do, hence the general fizzle of the .NET Passport initative.

 

[jaerdaph]

I think some tin foil hats might be on too tight.



I'll put mine back on when they try to take away my elf pr0n!